Uh Oh: Huge Record Collection's Alleged Buyer May Be Getting Some Very Negative eBay Feedback Soon

uh oh

Huge Record Collection's Alleged Buyer May Be Getting Some Very Negative eBay Feedback Soon

The eBay user jopsoup—who won the gigantic record collection that was up for auction there with a $3,002,500 bid—has a curious addition to his favorably rated profile: He's now noted as not being registered with the site. What does that mean? From eBay: "'Not a registered user' can refer to members who have cancelled their membership, or whose membership has been suspended by eBay. For example, a member whose correct contact information is no longer on file with us may have their registration suspended until the new contact information is entered. In either case, the member appears as 'not a registered user' and is not allowed to buy or sell on eBay." Could the high bid have flagged eBay's profile-watchers, or did jopsoup cut and run once he realized that he'd have to cut a big check? The agent for seller Paul Mawhinney is currently "trying to track down" jopsoup, who lives in Ireland, but one wonders if this bid was just an eBay joke that went wrong in a very high-profile way. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; HT Robbie Analog]

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3:59 PM on Fri Feb 22 2008
By Maura Johnston
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5 comments

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by Tenno at 04:20 PM on 02/22/08
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Honestly, since he was getting lowballed for what amounts to a tremendous amount of history, I think this is good really. Maybe a museum or collector can get this guy what this is really worth.
by lukobe at 05:55 PM on 02/22/08
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Yeah...I hope this turns out to be a fake, so that a museum or library can get ahold of it. I mean, this is basically what the Library of Congress is for, no?
by lukobe at 05:56 PM on 02/22/08
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Ah, I see on an earlier post that his asking price was too much for the LoC....time for Paul Allen to step up again! I'd love to see this in Seattle :)
by Captain Wrong at 07:07 PM on 02/22/08
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@Tenno: The problem is, this guy has tried to sell this collection a couple of times already to museums and the LoC. No museum has this kind of cash. Off the top of my head, I can't really picture what museum this would fit in with anyway.

Three million is a lot of scratch, especially for something that is going to require so much space and time and effort to manage. I'm trying to manage my own collection of just a couple thousand 12" and it's a pain in the ass. I can't even imagine what this would be like.

As I said other thread, I respect the guy's situation (failing health, wanting to leave something for the kids) but if he wants to keep this collection together, he's going to have to donate it. Who has the money, time and space for a beast like this?

Also, I'd like to know where the $50 mil estimated value comes from. That's about $17 an item for this collection. I find that hard to swallow. And seriously, anyone else seen the market for music lately? It's in the crapper all the way around.
by wev567 at 09:44 AM on 02/23/08
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A lot of this stuff, especially the old blues and jazz, doesn't exist anywhere else - not in the LOC, or at the record labels themselves. Sometimes they even use his records to create those "original master" box sets. This has to be worth more than $50 mil. Sell off the doubles (like the 50 sealed copies of the Phil Spector x-mas album) and "donate" or "loan" the rest to the LOC or a museum. The art market runs like this. Rich guys aren't buying $100 mil Van Goghs put them in their living rooms.